Romania: the realization of the first SMR power plant in Doicești is underway.

Shareholders of the Nuclearelectrica company have officially adopted the Final Investment Decision (FID) for the project to build small modular reactors (SMR) in the town of Doicești. With this move, Romania moves from the analysis phase to the implementation phase, replacing the old coal-fired power plant with a modern nuclear facility of 462 megawatts

The project will use American NuScale technology with six modules, each producing 77 megawatts, and it is estimated that the project will ultimately create 200 permanent jobs, 1,500 construction jobs, and over 2,300 in the supply chain and component manufacturing. The facility is designed for 60 years of stable operation and it is planned that the first module will be on the grid in 2033.

Financing challenge: Between 6 and 7 billion dollars

Although the investment decision has been made, Romanian Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan was cautious in statements to the media, emphasizing that it is a huge sum of 6 to 7 billion dollars. The next six months will be crucial for defining the financial structure and attracting additional investors. The U.S. Exim Bank and the DFC have already expressed interest in supporting the project with up to 4 billion dollars.

Technology challenge?

Otherwise, the matter at hand is not the conversion of a coal-fired plant into a nuclear one by replacing the steam supply system (Steam Supply System), which exists as one of the promises the nuclear industry has been making in recent years, so we will deal with this for a moment. Namely, it is a serious question of the economic viability of such potential projects: the construction of new turbines and generators is not such a large part of the total cost of the new installation of any power plant, and leaving old components brings with it increased costs of frequent maintenance. We believe that such a practice will not be commercially viable.

But the challenge also lies in the company that would provide the technology: NuScale. This company, indeed, was one of the first to begin developing small modular reactors back in the early 2000s, but did not capitalize on its pioneering work. Namely, in November 2014, NuScale announced that it would build the first U.S. SMR at the Idaho National Laboratory. The plant was intended for Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems (UAMPS), a subdivision of the state of Utah, as part of the Carbon-Free Power Project (CFPP).

Since 2021, however, 8 cities withdrew from CFPP. In July 2021, the proposal was reduced to 6 reactors, and the expected price of electricity increased to $58 per megawatt-hour. In January 2023, CFPP approved a new budget and financing plan, establishing a target price of $89 per megawatt-hour. Projected construction costs rose to $9.3 billion for a 462-megawatt capacity, with $3.6 billion for 720 megawatts in 2020 – a huge increase. In November 2023, UAMPS announced that it was unlikely the project would have enough subscribers to continue because of rising costs, and UAMPS and NuScale jointly decided to cancel the project.

Subsequently, NuScale did not have significant commercial successes, and it remains a big question whether their product will ultimately be commercially viable.